Gm Plans Natural Gas-gasoline Hybrid Vehicles

General Motors Corp. is preparing to launch a fleet of hybrid vehicles that will operate on compressed natural gas or lead-free gasoline.

They will be marketed under a GM corporate moniker rather than the labels of the Chevrolet or GMC divisions, which will supply the cars and trucks for the program.

GM reportedly plans to announce details of the program and the vehicles in January at the Detroit auto show, just before offering them for sale to government, commercial and fleet customers. Few, if any, are supposed to end up in the retail market for consumers.

The vehicles reportedly will include the Chevrolet Caprice and Corsica cars, the full-size Chevrolet and GMC pickups, the full-size Chevrolet and GMC vans and perhaps the compact Chevrolet S-10 and GMC S-15 pickups and the Chevrolet motor-home chassis.

The vehicles are expected to carry $3,000 to $5,000 premiums over their regular prices.

There is no word on how many of the vehicles will be marketed, but reportedly they'll be offered almost exclusively to utility companies and fleet and commercial customers in areas that have the infrastructure to refuel compressed natural gas vehicles and have pollution levels that make clean-burning natural gas practical.

That means California, Colorado and Illinois are expected to be among areas getting the vehicles.

Rather than relying strictly on compressed natural gas, the vehicles will contain natural gas and gasoline tanks to extend driving range when the natural gas runs low and users are far from a refueling station.

Natural gas emits less pollution than gasoline, but driving range is more limited and fueling stations are scarce.

The dual-fuel vehicles will be used to test the advantages and disadvantages of natural gas and the emissions and range benefits of dual-fuel vehicles.